Experience with Meteor

KingOfFairview

Am thinking of jumping ship from Vodafone to Meteor, anyone give any feedback? I'm in Dublin, had heard coverage can be patchy.

Fresh Pots

KingOfFairview wrote: »

Am thinking of jumping ship from Vodafone to Meteor, anyone give any feedback? I'm in Dublin, had heard coverage can be patchy.

I'm in Dublin I had no problems when I was with them, even down the country they were pretty good as where they don't have coverage themselves you can roam on vodafone. Coverage was fairly patchy when they first started out but it's much improved in the last 5 years or so.

jay93

Coverage is ok but the data network rarely worked for me while i was with them both my Emobile/Meteor sims would constantly display errors in data connection maybe this has changed since last time i was with them 2012 i think.

3G coverage is hard to find outside of built up areas its more EDGE coverage by far the worst for 3G coverage in my experiance can't blame them though they were one of the last to start building a 3G network and i'm sure it has improved since before.

Bob24

KingOfFairview wrote: »

Am thinking of jumping ship from Vodafone to Meteor, anyone give any feedback? I'm in Dublin, had heard coverage can be patchy.

I've been with them for 2 months, and my experience in Dublin is that while the coverage is not as good as O2, it is very decent. 3G speeds are also reasonably good.

Largest negative point by far for me: customer service has been *awful* at dealing with technical issues on their side. If your problem is not a basic one they have been trained on, they basically keep pushing back by suggesting useless things, denying it, or ignoring you.

KingOfFairview

Hmm... Bit concerned about network data issues

Captain Flaps

Customer service is awful, I had many data issues too. When I was with them (about 2 years ago now) they had a limit of 50MB a day for data. I had a 1GB monthly allowance but if I used more than 50 megs in a given day I was charged a fee. Worth dodging them for that alone if that policy is still in place.

Three customer service is useless but they're by far the best value. €20 top up will get you:

Meteor:
-€20 phone credit
-Unlimited Any Network Texts
-Unlimited Meteor to Meteor calls
-250MB Data

Three:
-€20 credit
-Unlimited Any Network Texts
-Unlimited Three to Three calls
-15GB Data

Not sure if you're billpay or prepay, but in my experience Three offer a lot more for the same money. I had enough bad experiences as a Meteor Billpay customer that I vowed never to give them another penny.

KingOfFairview

Three isn't an option because of the phone I want. I'm a billpay customer

Captain Flaps

Ok, that's fair. Bottom line then is I'd avoid Meteor if at all possible.

Bob24

Captain Flaps wrote: »

When I was with them (about 2 years ago now) they had a limit of 50MB a day for data. I had a 1GB monthly allowance but if I used more than 50 megs in a given day I was charged a fee. Worth dodging them for that alone if that policy is still in place.

Note sure about that particular point, but I can confirm they have issues in the way they report data usage with some plans, and are refusing to acknowledge the issues and not willing to do anything at all to fix them. See my thread here: http://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2056957161

For my particular needs their Shockproof plan offers the best value after Tesco Mobile though (1-2 GB or data per month, 10-20 minutes of call to Ireland, 10-20 texts to Ireland, and about 1 hour of calls to Europe). I was with Tesco before but got a bit tired of sometimes slow data speeds or http connections which seem to get stuck. Meteor is definitely doing better from that perspective, but I will give Tesco another try in the near future and move back if they have sorted their data issues (data is a big thing for me but everything else about Tesco is better than Meteor: coverage, customer service, and prices).

Captain Flaps

Just checked there, the 50MB daily allowance is still in place: http://www.meteor.ie/do_more/mobileinternet/faqs/

KingOfFairview

Very rare id use 50mg a day.

Captain Flaps

You'd be surprised how quickly it all adds up though. A few poorly optimised web pages, images loading on Facebook/Twitter etc... I got a 50MB limit reached warning every other day and I wouldn't consider myself a particularly heavy user.

KingOfFairview

Yeah, fair point... Also I don't want to be counting every Mb.

Bob24

Especially with the data-speeds we are getting nowadays. If you assume you are getting 4Mbps on average (500KB/sec) - you can go over your allowance in just one minute and 40 seconds. As Captain Flaps mentioneed, a few unoptimised websites, maybe an application which is using more data than you expected, and here you go.

I find it strange that Meteor would charge you for going over 50MB if you have an active data bundle though. Not that I don't believe they are incompetent enough to do it, but if it had really been going on for 2 years you would have someone would have brought it up to ComReg and they would have done something about it, wouldn't you?

terrarev

That 50MB charge is only for customers who don't have a data add-on. I'm with meteor and used 150MB on Saturday and got no extra charges.

Captain Flaps

terrarev wrote: »

That 50MB charge is only for customers who don't have a data add-on. I'm with meteor and used 150MB on Saturday and got no extra charges.

Are you sure? I'd check again. I often got the 50MB message with a date a few days in the past (I was a billpay customer with a data add-on). Again, see this link about data add-ons: http://www.meteor.ie/do_more/mobileinternet/bp_pricing/

Specifically this paragraph:

Meteor T&C wrote:

Once you’ve subscribed, your Add-On will be up and running as soon as you start browsing from your phone. Outside of your add-on allowance, you will be charged our daily rates, which are 70c per day for 50MB. If you happen to use more than 50MB in a given day then you will be charged at rate of 2c per MB. Don’t forget, you can check your remaining balance at anytime at MyMeteor or by free texting ‘Balance Data to 50104. Please note that the rates above & mobile internet add-ons apply to domestic browsing only.

terrarev

I've gone over the 50MB in the past and nothing happened. If you can't go over 50MB per day how can they offer 2GB or 5GB data plans? 50MB x 30 days is less that 1.5 GB. How could you ever use your data?

EDIT to say, your quote also says "Outside of your add-on allowance, you will be charged our daily rates, which are 70c per day for 50MB. If you happen to use more than 50MB in a given day then you will be charged at rate of 2c per MB. "

This looks to mean that if you go over your data allowance, that is xGB per month, then you are charged 50MB per day, but that once you're inside your bundle then there's no restriction

Captain Flaps

Very good point that. If I'm wrong, well and good, I'm just quoting from past experience, I was on a 1GB plan at the time but that's what it says on Meteor's own site. Maybe they don't apply this to plans over 2GB but why doesn't it say that?

Edit: you know what, I think I did misread that. They're saying that outside your bundle allowance you'll be charged a daily rate up to 50MB and 2c per MB thereafter, which makes much more sense. It was definitely 50MB/Day when I was billpay, on my plan. Glad to see they've packed that in.

terrarev

Yeah, it wouldn't make any sense nowadays with things like spotify popular.

For what it's worth regarding meteor, I've been with them for years and have never really had problems. I have heard that their customer support leaves something to be desired but thankfully I've never had much dealing with them. For me they are much better value than the other operators in the market, and I'd be happy to sign another contract with them.

listermint

KingOfFairview wrote: »

Am thinking of jumping ship from Vodafone to Meteor, anyone give any feedback? I'm in Dublin, had heard coverage can be patchy.

I moved from Vodafone to Meteor about 5 years ago, havent looked back since. Coverage is perfect, Service is perfect.

I moved because i was ripped off with a 100 Euro top up which strangely disappeared from my phone when i was abroad. Despite my Phone being actually literally being off the whole time i was shafted for roaming charges. And they 'dont give break down bills for non bill pay customers' So shag vodafone.

My mother is still with them, She is still paying too much for her bill contract. And her HTC Desire has ha nothing but problems from the start. The service for repair was terrible too.

Captain Flaps

terrarev wrote: »

Yeah, it wouldn't make any sense nowadays with things like spotify popular.

For what it's worth regarding meteor, I've been with them for years and have never really had problems. I have heard that their customer support leaves something to be desired but thankfully I've never had much dealing with them. For me they are much better value than the other operators in the market, and I'd be happy to sign another contract with them.

I once spent over three hours on hold to them, and I still get sent a bill for €0 every month despite numerous phone calls and 2 years of no longer being a customer of theirs.

Don't have huge confidence in them after everything, but at least they've sorted that out.

listermint

Also i notice some folks here are giving them patchy coverage??

Having travelled all over ireland ive never had patchy data coverage only in obvious areas like lead painted pubs or basements or carparks underground.

My O2 blackberry Bold (work phone) has given be far more crappy data coverage than meteor ever did.

StaticNoise

I assume that the EMobile coverage would be the same as the Meteor coverage, as they share the same masts?
I am possibly moving to the EMobile E32 per month from my 3Pay deal as I'm using my 3000 texts before the month runs out.

It is a reluctant move, I must add.

unkel

I moved to Meteor about 4 months ago after 12 years with Vodafone

Haven't had any issues with coverage / calls / data

Got a fantastic deal too. Nice Lumia 820 phone for €45 and then €25 / month for 18 months on a lite package (200minutes / 200txts / 1GB)

Droguser

with meteor a few months now. signal good, and call usage stats on webpage update very quick, so its handy to keep track of usage.

signal very good, surprisingly good in the west with EDGE, normally get 6-8 mb on 3G, just noticed this lately.


great value, €20 per month 200 mins 200 txts 1gb data and got free HTC desire X.


had no problems, and great coverage up north for roaming, on all uk networks ( except 3)

jay93

StaticNoise wrote: »

I assume that the EMobile coverage would be the same as the Meteor coverage, as they share the same masts?
I am possibly moving to the EMobile E32 per month from my 3Pay deal as I'm using my 3000 texts before the month runs out.

It is a reluctant move, I must add.

Yes exactly eMobile operates off Meteor's network so the coverage will be 100% the same as Meteor.:pac:

username123

unkel wrote: »

I moved to Meteor about 4 months ago after 12 years with Vodafone

Haven't had any issues with coverage / calls / data

Got a fantastic deal too. Nice Lumia 820 phone for €45 and then €25 / month for 18 months on a lite package (200minutes / 200txts / 1GB)

Do you know what its called?